Draw your life as a line. Does it go in a straight path? Does it
twirl in the midst of those lively, indecisive years? Does it
zigzag between ups and downs?
When we move along that line of life, it can appear as if moments
are constantly ending. We move to new places, which means we left
an old home. We meet a new person, which means we have older
friends who we may not be in touch with anymore. We constantly
experience new things, which also can seem like we constantly end
old...

Sometimes I think that all my blog posts have to be about
changing the world. I have the opportunity to say something, so I
have to pick something worth writing about. However, throughout
my Voices of Youth blogging internship, I realized that
everything is worth writing about. The way the purple flowers
bloomed today or the time my friend attempted to point out the
Orion constellation in the sky and accidentally slammed the pizza
box in my hands on the ground.
Every moment, ev...

Foreword: Sex work is an extremely complex topic. It is an
occupation that leads to upward mobility for many women in a
masculine society. Therefore, it can be a choice but that choice
may be within a constrained patriarchal society. The angle for
this blog post is less on the discussion of free choice, but on
the stigma sex workers have to confront. Nevertheless, I find it
an important statement for readers to understand before reading
this piece.
The image of a dirty wom...

This blog post is a collaboration between Begimai Sataeva and Anna Weber.
Gender is a boundless societal construct. At least, that is what
we learned when we, the dual writers for this blog post, started
writing about our own countries’ definitions of beauty. Anna
lives in the United States and Begimai lives in Kyrgyzstan - two
places nearly 7,002 miles away or a 12.5 hour plane ride. Yet,
our experiences were shockingly similar. We’ve outlined our two
stories below so that...

I have privilege.
I am a white woman from a middle to upper class suburb.
I attend an elite liberal arts institution for my education.
When I walk down the streets in protest, I can face a police
officer.
I have privilege.
In recent years, the concept of privilege has spearheaded debates
about racial justice in the United States. Sociologist Allan
Johnson describes the concept as any advantage that is unearned,
exclusive, and socially conferred. Many respond to s...

1. It’s about equality
As a feminist, I often receive the complaint that I am “trying to
bring men down in order to raise women.” My main issue with this
hackneyed portrayal of the feminist movement is that it doesn’t
even make logical sense. If I want increased rights, lowering
someone else’s’ rights doesn’t get me my rights. I want to be at
the high level of men. I don’t want to stay at the lower one.
Giving minorities equal rights with the majority does not take
away the maj...

I walked into my Introduction to Peace and Conflict Studies class
unsure. I was unsure if I had any of the answers to the conflicts
we would study, unsure of the conflicts in my own life, unsure if
this class would help me or leave me to continue to spin towards
answers I couldn’t name. But the most eminent question once I
walked into the class was where I was going to sit—front and
invoke the possibility of having to speak or back and hide from
the questions.
I changed my seat...

I’ve never liked writing about myself or really writing about
anything I experience personally for that matter. Now that I
think about it, in every college application, every job
interview, even my very first blog post for Voices of Youth I
wrote about myself in the third person and then changed the
subjects and verbs. The pretense of another person, a different
character, made it easier to write about me.
But I think I’m cheating—using words to face myself like an
edited photo...

Forewarning: a trigger warning may be defined according to
Oxford Dictionary as a statement at the start
of a piece of writing, video, etc., alerting the reader or viewer
to the fact that it contains potentially distressing material
(often used to introduce a description of such content).
I first contemplated trigger warnings as I listened to my English
professor detail the story of Atena Farghadani, an Iranian
illustrator who was jailed for depicting politicians as animals.
A...

Anna

Carrying a stack of books between my arms, blowing blonde, stringy hair out of my face, swinging back and forth to music, contemplating the recent news headline that I’ve just read, and most likely about to run into another person, that is me. I’m a student, a writer, a reader, a traveler, a listener, and an activist. I’m here because I have a voice and I want to start a conversation with you.

Member since December 2, 2015

Age 22 •
12 Posts

Student, Freelance Journalist for Education Network Magazine based in Kenya, United States

Voices of Youth (VOY) was founded in 1995 as UNICEF’s online place for young people to learn more about issues affecting their world. Today, VOY is a vibrant community of youth bloggers from all over the world, offering inspiring, original insight and opinion on a variety of topics. Everyone is welcome to write, film, comment and engage in discussions. Let’s go!